Partner news and resources

A new Hearing About Me form for children and young people attending Hearings has been launched. The form has been co-produced with young people from the Proud to Care Champions Board in Inverclyde and SCRA. The form - which is available in printed format and online –...

The Hearings System Working Group has today (Friday 11 March) published the Issues List. It is a document with 56 questions across 5 categories. These questions will guide conversations and deliberation as the Group works toward creating detailed proposals for the...

On Care Day 2022, SCRA has published its Route Plan to Keep The Promise. The Route Plan and accompanying more detailed Strategy document explains how SCRA will Keep The Promise. The plans link closely with The Promise Scotland’s Route Map which has identified themes,...

SCRA is about to embark on a new piece of research which will explore the impact of virtual Hearings during the COVID-19 pandemic on participation, rights and decision making. The research gets underway today with an online survey aimed at foster carers and kinships...

Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) has launched an ambitious national campaign, to recruit new volunteer Children’s Panel Members to support children and young people in their local communities. This year, the organisation aims to recruit over 700 trainee Panel...

SCRA’s Annual Report 2020/21 has been published today, Thursday 28 October 2021.  The Annual Report includes the full set of audited Annual Accounts for 2020/21 which also contains information about performance. You can view the Annual Report and supporting documents...

Children's Hearings Scotland has published their Impact Report 2020-2021. The report focuses on key achievements and big projects which have launched throughout the year that support CHS’ volunteer community, and their commitment to #KeepThePromise to Scotland’s...

SCRA has published its Rights, Inclusion and Corporate Parenting Strategy today (Monday 27 September). The three year strategy aims to ensure that everything SCRA does is grounded on respecting rights, plus is inclusive and supportive. The strategy is supported by an...

Education Scotland has launched a new resource about the Children’s Hearings System aimed at practitioners. The online resource ‘The Children’s Hearing: What Education Practitioners should know’ provides information and resources for education colleagues who support...

CHIP partner Celcis has launched a new research project to help make Children's Hearings better for young people. The Voice and Inclusion Project (VIP) has been set up for children and young people with care experience to come together to work with CELCIS (the Centre...

There has been a reduction in face to face Hearings since the start of the year as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. The Hearings System has responded by moving towards a virtual first model for all Hearings. Since January, a Virtual Hearings Group, led...

Today Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) launch their biggest ever national campaign to recruit new volunteer Children’s Panel Members to work with children in their local communities. Panel Members are volunteers from local communities who take part in children's...

A new website has been launched to help children and young people find an advocate. If you are going to a Children’s Hearing – no matter where you live in Scotland – you can get an advocate to help you. You can find out more about what is an advocate, how they can...

A policy briefing has been published today (Tuesday 10 November) exploring ‘Young people and parents’ views on privacy and how this affects their participation in the Children’s Hearings System’. Privacy and confidentiality in the Children’s Hearings System have...

SCRA’s Annual Report 2019/20 has been published today, Thursday 29 October 2020. The Annual Report includes the full set of audited Annual Accounts for 2019/20 which contains a new section on performance. The report starts with a foreword, authored by SCRA’s Board...

A ground breaking piece of research has been published today (Monday 26 October) by the SCRA and Barnardo’s Scotland. ‘Sexual exploitation of children involved in the Children’s Hearings System’ is the first national study of child sexual exploitation in Scotland. The...

The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) has published their Official Statistics 2019/20 today, Thursday 30 July 2020. The full set of statistics includes: Statistical Analysis 2019/20 Online Statistics 2019/20 Online Statistics by Local Authority...

Children’s Hearings Scotland are consulting on an ambitious new strategy which aims to do more to put the child or young person’s voice at the centre of the hearings system. The Children’s Rights and Inclusion Strategy, which was launched for consultation by Deputy...

Children’s Hearings Scotland published practice guidance for Panel Members on the conduct of virtual Hearings which will now include professionals, such as social workers, legal representatives, and young people and family members. The guidance includes description of...

Barnardo’s Scotland and SCRA has teamed up to carry out the first ever national study of sexual exploitation of children in the Hearings System. The ground breaking research is being finalised and will be published at the end of June. The announcement comes on...

Stand Up For Siblings has won the prestigious Herald Society Partnership Award. Fourteen representatives from the multi-agency partnership attended the award ceremony in Glasgow on Wednesday evening. Stand Up For Siblings joined 250 guests to celebrate the 12th annual...

SCRA’s Annual Report 2018/19 has been published today and includes the full set of audited Annual Accounts for 2018/19. The report also contains an update on SCRA’s Business Plan 2018/19 activity. The suite of information is available on SCRA’s website. The Annual...

Social Work Scotland has issued a position statement on children aged between 15 and 17 in the Children’s Hearings System. It links to the Whole System Approach (WSA). You can read the paper here. 

New research has been published today focusing on home Compulsory Supervision Orders (CSOs) in the Hearings System.The research, which was commissioned by the Scottish Government and carried out by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, asks: Do Compulsory...

A film has been launched today aimed at helping young people with autism attending Children’s Hearings.The short film has been produced by SCRA and it features a young person from the charity Reach for Autism.The film is available online.SCRA has been working with the...

The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) has published their Official Statistics 2018/19 today, Thursday 25 July 2019. The full set of statistics includes: Online Statistics 2018/19 Statistical Analysis 2018/19 Online Statistics by Local Authority...

Today (Thursday 31 January 2019) Children's Hearings Scotland (CHS) have launched their new Children’s Hearings Scotland Learning Academy (also known as the Learning Academy).Developed in partnership with a range of stakeholders, the Learning Academy is designed to...

SCRA has published its second Annual Report for Young People today, Wednesday 30 January.Back in 2017 SCRA launched a Corporate Parenting Plan and followed this in 2018 with their very first Annual Report for Young People. The report looked back over the year,...

SCRA’s Annual Report 2017/18 has been published today, Thursday 25 October 2018. The Annual Report includes the full set of audited Annual Accounts for 2017/18. The report also contains an update on SCRA’s Business Plan 2017/18, as well as a new report providing...

SCRA’s Official Statistics 2017/18 have been published today, Thursday 26 July 2018. The full set of statistics includes: Online Statistics 2017/18 Statistical Analysis 2017/18 Online Statistics by Local Authority Breakdown 2017/18 The statistics show that in 2017/18,...

Children 1st are seeking to recruit new Safeguarders to the national Safeguarders Panel. Appointed by Ministers, Safeguarders have a unique and important role in gathering information from children and young people to assist in Children’s Hearings and related court...

SCRA has produced a new short film aimed at young people. The film shows a Pre-Hearing visit in the hope of encouraging more children and young people to request one before their actual Hearing. The film, which is set in our Hearings centre in Stirling, shows a...

Recruitment is now underway to appoint a Development Assistant to support the work of Our Hearings, Our Voice. This is a part time post based in Stirling and the successful candidate will work closely with the Development Worker who is already in post. SCRA is hosting...

A new multi-agency partnership ‘Stand Up For Siblings’ is being launched today Friday 9 March. Stand Up For Siblings is a collaboration between a number of child welfare, children’s rights and legal organisations and academics within Scotland including Clan Childlaw,...

SCRA has published a new research report today. The report ‘Complexity in the lives of looked after children and their families in Scotland: 2003 to 2016’ is available to view here. This research sought to answer the question - has child protection in Scotland become...

Scottish Ministers are looking to appoint five Members to the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and would welcome applications from those who believe they could make a positive and confident contribution to the SPA and its future development. These roles require...

To mark the start of the Year of Young People 2018, SCRA has published an Annual Report aimed at young people. The Annual Report – which you can read here - looks at some of the progress following the first year of SCRA’s Corporate Parenting Plan which was launched in...

CHIP members may be interested in taking part in a workshop or giving their views via an online survey about advocacy in the Children’s Hearings System. The Scottish Government has commissioned The Lines Between, working with Who Cares? Scotland, to develop a National...

SCRA’s Annual Report 2016/17 has been published today, Thursday 26 October 2017.  The Annual Report includes the full set of audited Annual Accounts for 2016/17. The report starts with a foreword, authored by SCRA’s Chair. It also includes some of the highlights and...

Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) publishes its Annual Report and Accounts for the financial year 01 April 2016 to 31 March 2017. This single document contains the National Convener’s statement, CHS’ Performance Report and CHS’ Annual Accounts. For the first time,...

SCRA has produced a new research report ‘An exploration of ethnic minority communities’ understanding and awareness of child protection and the Children’s Hearings System in Scotland’ which has been published. Background Protection of children at risk of abuse and...

SCRA has published a new research report today looking at 16 year olds in the Children’s Hearings System. The full report ‘Decision making on continuation of Compulsory Supervision Orders past young people’s 16th birthdays’ can be viewed here and information from the...

The annual national search for 500 new Children’s Panel volunteers has been launched. To find out more about becoming a Panel Member, or to apply click here. The campaign will run until 26 September. There are currently over 2,500 volunteer Panel Members across...

SCRA has published its Official Statistics 2016/17. The full set of statistics includes: Online Statistics, Statistical Analysis and Online Statistics by Local Authority Breakdown. The statistics show that in 2016/17, 15,118  children and young people in Scotland were...

Three new research reports have been published today, Wednesday 12 July 2017. The reports relate to Advocacy Pilots undertaken by Who Cares? Scotland for the Scottish Government over 2016-17. The research looked at advocacy service for children and young people...

Regarding the Education and Skills Committee Report on the Children’s Hearings System - Taking Stock of Recent Reforms - in response to the key recommendation 4. Advocacy and Safeguarders: 4.2 On Safeguarders, the Committee welcomes the progress that has been made....

A new research report has been published today which has been written by Dr Gillian Henderson, Information & Research Manager at SCRA with support from the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ). You can view the new report here.  The Children’s Hearings...

A new film has been produced for parents/carers with learning disabilities who have a child or children going through the Hearings System. The short film, which has been produced by SCRA, is available here and SCRA has hard copies which can be sent out on request. The...

Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) and the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) have launched a new corporate parenting website aimed at young people. Both organisations have produced plans which detail their corporate parenting commitments and...

The annual Panel Member recruitment campaign has been launched The search is now on for 500 new Panel Members. Led by Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS), the campaign will run until 25 September. This year’s recruitment campaign is focused on highlighting what it...

Going to a Children’s Hearing for the first time? Did you know you can ask for a Pre-Hearing visit? While SCRA has offered Pre-Hearing visits for a while now, ‘Champions’ have now been appointed in every Locality, as part of SCRA’s ongoing drive to improve the...

Two new reports have been published on the CHIP website today. Both reports are about an advocacy service for children and young people involved in the Children’s Hearings System. The first is a report which presents the findings from an Action Research project...